The online retailer Zappos announced yesterday a breach to their systems and has expired all password accounts on zappos.com. There is a letter to employees from Zappos CEO available on zappos.com.[1] They are urging all customers to change their zappos account password immediately [2], also do so on accounts elsewhere if your password is in sync.

It is also being reported they have turned off company phones and request inquires be sent to email, as their phone system capacity is not capable of the high volume.[3] ISC Handlers outside the US have reported they are unable to get to the Zappos.com sites. It appears they have opened things back up for some non-US traffic, but all traffic is not open as of this writing.

I have not read any report on this issue that indicates what day the incident was discovered. There are also no avaialble details on how long the breach was active before being discovered by Zappos staff. However, if basic incident handling protocols are being used for this incident, then it appears the discovery of the incident is only "days" old, and not "weeks" or more. If this is true, I applaud Zappos for coming clean as quickly as possible. Far too many companies wait too long to notify their customer base.

If anyone has details they can share or reports that provide any further info, then feel free to post a comment or send it in to us directly.